The present invention relates generally to an optical display system where Moiré effects are reduced. The optical system can be a liquid crystal display (LCD) illumination system.
Microstructured optical components are common in optical display systems such as LCD illumination systems. For example, LCD illumination systems may include optical components with microstructures such as patterned dots, micro lenses, or microprisms. Typically the patterned dots on the light guide are used to spread the light in the plane of the display, while microprism films having multiple microprisms are used to enhance the luminance of the display. Even though the individual microstructures of these components, such as prisms for the microprism films are small, diffusing layers are still necessary between component films. This is so because each microstructured film and the LCD display (containing numerous pixels) all contain ordered-periodic structures. Due to the close proximity of these components, interference patterns, such as Moiré fringes, caused by the interaction of the component-to-component microstructures can be easily observed by a user.
In particular prismatic or microprism films are a major contributor to Moiré fringes in LCD display systems. Prismatic or microprism films are optical devices that have one or more sides covered by an array of microprisms. Typically these prismatic films have a linear array of microprisms with a pitch in the range of tens of microns. Even if these prismatic films deviate from perfect linearity, they are typically at least substantially periodic and thus prone to producing Moiré effects in optical illumination systems, such as LCD illumination systems.